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Friday, May 8, 2015

Because Penguins Eat Fish And All Barbs Are Wired #GothamFinale #Gotham


Because Penguins Eat Fish And All Barbs Are Wired #GothamFinale #Gotham

 All pictures courtesy of FOX, unless otherwise stated.
 
Whoa! I just finished watching the season finale of #Gotham and... Whoa! I know, I'm very behind on my DVRing but it has been a busy week. There were people dying, people flying (to their doom), to people retiring and people discovering secrets. There was so much stuff packed into this one episode that it felt almost like more of a summation of the season, rather than an end to it. Where do I begin.

CatFish
How cute!
I guess we should first talk about the return of Fish Mooney. Seeing as how the episode was so packed with tying up loose ends and setting up the future of this world of deceptive cops and honorless crooks, the majority of viewers were left to surmise and assume that whatever misadventures, secret hospital visits and underground surgeries that she underwent were successful. If you remember, the last time anyone saw her, she had just been shot in the stomach while escaping The Doll Maker’s island; she returned to Gotham much like The Dark Knight did in that movie where he rose and everything (remember? That guy Bane was in it. Bruce was Batman, but he wasn’t Batman and nobody thought to ask where this billionaire guy went for half a year. There was fire, too. They even had an ugly Batman statue. Remember? I’m getting off topic). She returned by boat and was greeted by Selina Kyle who clearly saw the black woman with crazy hair and mismatch eyes as a role model, immediately joining her gang because it’s a great gig and thus starting the legend of #CatFish. Lucky for her, she returned in the middle of a gang war that would see one or both of the current city crime bosses crumbling.

First up to crumble: Falcone. He might have crumbled had his would-be assassins not aimed their rocket launcher at his car instead of at him as he held a chicken. Suffering a little residual pain and anguish from the attack, he winds up in some rather dingy looking hospital somewhere in the city with Maroni’s goons slowly making their way toward him. Penguin stopped by to gloat as he is wanton to do, and proved that he still had a lot to learn if he was going to truly be the crime boss of the city (I suppose now we know why every villain ever has always saw the need to profess their plan before it’s completed—it’s arousing). Of course, their encounter where Penguin confesses that it was he who tangentially started the war, he then proceeded to take out a scalpel and try killing his old boss. In hindsight, I think that defeated the purpose in starting the war in the first place. If you always planned on doing the killing yourself, why not just do it to both bosses and claim your throne?

Unfortunately like nearly all good plans Cobblepot had this season, it went awry as Gordon came in and white knighted the entire situation. Gordon only saved Falcone out of a belief that the old man could stop the anarchy in the city. He’d have to shoot his way out of the hospital as it had been abandoned due to a notice about the hit on Falcone put out by his squad. Bullock to the rescue to come and shoot the last guy before his partner got killed.

With Cobblepot, Falcone and Penguin’s right hand guy (formerly Mooney’s right hand man) all in custody, the two cops took the men to what Falcone thought would be a safe house. Surprise! Surprise (Gomer Pyle voice)! Lo and behold, Fish Mooney was already there with Selina Kyle in-tow with her other new cobbled together group of goons. She was happy to not only tie the five men up, but turn them over to Maroni in favor of respect and her own piece of the kingdom. Why the hell did she think she would get either of those things? Especially from Maroni? Forget the fact that he still saw her as nothing more than a minion, a bossable peon to give directions (yes, I said bossable. It’s a word... maybe), he didn’t even respect her as a woman. She wasn’t really even a woman scorned, just really pissed off. She shot him in his head and started a shootout with his guys.



Somehow, during this shootout, the five guys all got loose from their shackles and either ran away or gladly participated. Penguin being a member of the latter stayed and killed as many people as he could, clawing and shooting and beaking his way to the top in hopes of taking the crown of the city. He managed to get into one last fight with Fish on the rooftop of the harbor side of the warehouse. After a brief Sophie’s choice interlude with his new second hand (remember, Fish’s old right hand guy), they managed to fight through the bullet wounds left in both of them and scrap it out to the death. Penguin finally succeeded by tossing Fish over the roof into the icy waters below. In an unexpected move, he climbed atop the ledge of the roof and went complete DiCaprio Titanic, proclaiming how he was the King of the world Gotham. At that point, I completely expected for the right hand man to whisper, “I’ll never let go, Fish. I’ll never let go!” But he didn’t. Disappointing.


To round things out, E. Nygma went crazy or crazier than what he already was when that girl he had a crush on all season discovered his clue in the letter he forged for the cop he killed. Falcone escaped the bloodshed with Gordon and gave him a knife, the same one that Gordon’s father gifted to Falcone years ago. Like all good gangsters, he graciously retired, leaving the city for warmer pastures. Barbara also went crazy, confessing that it was she who killed her parents, not the Ogre, and that they were soulmates of some kind. She and Gordon’s current girlfriend got into a heck of a fight where Dr. Thompkins bashed her head on the hard floor. Gordon walked in and immediately believed that his ex was crazy, because who’s ex isn’t?


But the most intriguing cliffhanger/question came during the last few minutes when Bruce showed off his genius and figured out what Lucius meant went he said Thomas Wayne was a Stoic. He discovered a small remote that turned on music an revealed a secret passage behind a fireplace that led down some stairs. We know that will become the batcave in the future, but the question is what exactly is down there now? Could this be a mix of one of those other new comic story lines from the past quarter century where Thomas Wayne was some form of the Batman character or at the very least a vigilante himself?

This question along with others will plague us all off-season. For instance, is Fish Mooney really dead? Sure, Jada said about two months ago that she wouldn’t be returning for a second season but I honestly thought this was her second best role after Set It Off. She only fell into the water and in the comics Batman is always tossing or letting someone fall into the water and they magically re-appear. Plus, water is a fish's natural habitat. I can understand if she doesn’t want to reprise the role or if they don’t want her back for whatever reason, but if she did want to come back, I’m sure that could be worked out. What will happen to the show going forward? Who will be the main villain? Will we return to a city still in a gang war with no real leader, or will Penguin have officially claimed his throne? What is going to happen with crazy Barbara? What’s going to happen to crazy Nygma? Will Gordon get his own official non-Batman villain to be his nemesis or will the show continue as it is? Personally, I think an interesting and creative thing for them to do is to skip ahead a full year or two and pick-up there; if they didnt’ do this next season, then maybe the season after that.


What do you think readers and viewers out there? Were you satisfied with the finale? To you comic book fans out there, did you enjoy the show more at the end of the season? What would you like to see for next season?

As always, leave your comments below (click the no comments button if no one has commented yet). I look forward to reading your opinions. Follow me here and on Twitter. Join me on Goodreads in the group Books Similar To Breaking Bad, Scandal and other Popular TV Shows and check out my books on Amazon. #BrandNewHome is coming May 8th. #Darker is coming in June and so is #TheWriter. Also, look for the short story #ThePowerOfTen or check out the books I already have up there.

Until next time, If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

P.S. OK, so maybe that was a quote from dodgeball. Classic Ben Stiller. Classic Vince Vaughn. Classic Frat Pack humor. I like the movie. So what? I’ll do better next time.

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